This 2-hour workshop provides an introduction to The Conversational Model, a psychodynamic psychotherapy approach developed for working with personality difficulties, attachment disruption, and complex emotional presentations.
Topics covered include:
- The history and development of the Conversational Model
- Core theoretical foundations
- Key principles and therapeutic processes
- Practical application within therapy sessions
- Current evidence and research supporting the model
- Pathways for further training and development
This workshop is suitable for clinicians interested in psychodynamic psychotherapy and relational approaches to therapeutic work.
Presenter – Dr Nick Bendit
Dr Nick Bendit is a Staff Specialist Psychiatrist working at the Centre for Psychotherapy (Newcastle), an outpatient public psychotherapy unit offering long-term psychotherapy for patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and eating disorders. He has treated patients with BPD using the Conversational Model and DBT and Group Schema Therapy, as well as supervising mental health clinicians in the management of patients with BPD. He is the current Director of Training of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists (ANZAP).
He has published articles on mechanisms of change in psychotherapy, reviewing the effectiveness of DBT in borderline personality disorder, and mechanisms of chronic suicidal thoughts in patients with borderline personality disorder. He has been a co-author on the most recent Australian Clinical Practice Guidelines on deliberate self-harm in borderline personality disorder (RANZCP, 2016). He is the co-author of the third-largest randomised clinical trial of the effectiveness of psychotherapy in BPD, comparing DBT and the Conversational Model (Walton et al, 2020).
